Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
MR. RAflSDELL'S SPEECH.
Mr. President and Gen-
tlemen of Tone: (Laughter.) The Phila-
delphia Piano Trade Association has a very
high appreciation of the courtesy extended
to its representative on this occasion. While
Philadelphia humbly accepts her position
as one slow spoke, yet in the revolution of
the wheel, she is ever found to hold her
relative position, which would seem to in-
dicate that she "gets there" with the rest
of the alphabet. (Laughter.) Philadel-
phia knows a good thing when she sees it,
and is large enough to absorb it and broad
enough to acknowledge the source from
which it comes. Delicacy forbids that I
particularize; but in a general way I will
say that Philadelphia has a keen interest
in Boston's best pianos, and that the epi-
grammatic Gibson and the diplomatic Pond
retain their six per cent, interest in us.
(Laughter.)
Boston " tone " is a good thing. Three
hundred and fifty miles from Boston the
Province on the banks of the Delaware,
founded by Penn always had a very kind
feeling for that struggling hamlet lying be-
tween two rivers—planted by the Duke of
York and garnered by that race whose an-
cestors "danced before the Lord." (Laugh-
ter.) Knowing Brother Smith's familiarity
with scriptural history, (laughter,) I asked
him one day how he knew that the Jews
were the Lord's chosen people. He replied
at once, "Because the Bible said so." I
then asked him why the Bible said so, and
after some thought he said he supposed it
was because the Jews made the Bible.
That was an illustration of the analytical
character of Brother Smith which has en-
abled him to compete so successfully with
"the Lord's chosen people." (Laughter.)
Philadelphia not long ago resuirected
William Penn and placed him in bronze
upon the City Hall tower. When thus
resurrected, he inquired for his friend the
Duke of York; and when told that he had
been replaced by a man from Cork and a
man from the valley of Jehoshaphat, his
face assumed a reminiscent expression, and
he remarked, "Broad street seems to be
the only strictly American lane left." Still,
as I said before, we have a very kindly
feeling for New York. We present her
with our superabundant capital; we furnish
her best executive ability; and we take
great pleasure in visiting her. Could any-
MR. RAMSDELL:
of the magnolia. But we retain our equi-
poise. And though the wiles of the wicked
may seem for a time to swerve us slightly
from the path of perfect rectitude, yet we
are not lost.
Before leaving home, I said to our asso-
ciation that if there was a man among
them with a dyspeptic, worm-of-the-dust
feeling, who wished to acquire a highly
colored appreciation of himself, he should
come to Washington and receive the com-
plimentary attentions of the Marylanders.
There is nothing irregular about your
Marylander except the map of his State.
(Laughter.) He is square and is superior,
HENRY P. MILLER—Henry P. Miller & Sons Piano Co.
as are the other bricks from the same soil.
I have broken bread with him before.
Mr. President, in behalf of the organiza-
tion which I represent and for myself, I
thank you and the members of this asso-
ciation for your cordial and graceful hos-
pitality. (Hearty applause).
PRESIDENT MILLER: NOW gentlemen we
must hear from Boston. We are glad to
have here to-night a delegate from the
Boston Music Trade Association—one of
the most respected of the members of the
Association—a gentleman to whom we all
BANQUET HALL, THE ARLINGTON.
thing be more charming than dreaming
with the muses in the Marble Palace on
Fourteenth street?
When the birds of passage from Galves-
ton and New Orleans, passing on from
Baltimore, stop off in Philadelphia on their
way to the climy clime of New England,
we are charmed, we are flattered; we drink
in the liquid melody of their southern land;
we bask in the genial rays of southern
chivalry; we inhale the intoxicating odor
take very great pleasure in introducing to
you Mr. Chandler W. Smith.
CHANDLER W. SHITH'S SPEECH.
Mr. President and Gentle-
men: It affords me the greatest pleasure
to be with you to-night; yet I have been
somewhat unhappy in a way; for not being
a public speaker, I have been somewhat
nervous by reason of the fact that on my
way to the association I was informed by
your worthy President that he would call
on me to-night to say something to you. I
had not expected it; and I have had so
much to see here in this beautiful city that
I am wholly unprepared to say anything,
even if I had not been so entirely overcome
and eclipsed by our worthy friend on the
right, who represents the Philadelphia As-
sociation. He has soared so far above me,
that it would be necessary for me to get a
balloon in order to reach him; and as I
have none at hand, I must remain below.
But I repeat, gentlemen, it gives me
the greatest pleasure to be here with you
to-night and to see the evidences of good
feeling and good fellowship existing
among you. I have noticed during this
dinner that a great number of the gentle-
men attending could not keep their seats,
but have gone to various parts of the room
to converse with other members. Now
that means something. This condition of
things is different from the condition of
things that formerly existed. Before the
formation of these organizations, such a
state of feeling did not exist. To-day
it shows itself in a way that it has never
done before. But if there were any ques-
tion about the success of the National
Piano Manufacturers' Association of Ameri-
ca anyone entertaining such a doubt would
only have to look in here to-night to see
that he was mistaken.
The good that is resulting from this as-
sociation is unquestionable. You meet here
as competitors, but you meet also as
friends. You find that "the other fellow,"
as you know him, is a "good fellow." In
Boston for years, before our Boston Music
Trade Association was organized, the
members of the trade would not have dined
together. They were very seldom seen
together in any way. But the man-
ner in which business is transacted to-day
is entirely different from what it was.
After meeting as we are meeting here to-
MR. SMITH:
WHERE THE RECEPTION WAS HELD.
feel indebted for the magnificent work he
has done in building up the Boston Asso-
ciation. It was with the very greatest
pleasure that I anticipated having an op-
portunity at this time of once again pre-
senting him to you that you might hear a
few words from him—that he might bring
to this National Association the greeting
of our Boston Music Trade Association. I
night, we know that when we go home to
our different places of business, while each
of us is going to do what he can to sell his
own goods, he is going to do it in entirely
different ways from those he would have
pursued if he had not met here his com-
petitors, and found them to be fine con-
genial fellows. There is no question
about that—not the least. And this is
only the beginning of the good which
such an association as this is to do.